Английская Википедия:Auckland Island merganser

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Файл:Aukland merganser.jpg

Auckland Island merganser specimen in National Museum of Ireland - Natural History, acquired from Lord Ranfurly, Governor General of New Zealand in 1904

Файл:Auckland Islands Merganser.jpg

Illustration from 1909

Файл:Mergus australis head.jpg

Drawing of the head

The New Zealand merganser (Mergus australis) (Шаблон:Lang-mi), also known as Auckland merganser or Auckland Islands merganser, was a typical merganser which is now extinct.

Description

This duck was similar in size to the red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator). The adult male had a dark reddish-brown head, crest and neck, with bluish black mantle and tail and slate grey wings. The female was slightly smaller with a shorter crest.

History

This bird's Māori name was miuweka. It was first collected when a French expedition led by the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville on the ships L'Astrolabe and La Zelee visited the Auckland Islands in 1840. Its decline was caused by a combination of hunting and predation by introduced mammals. The bird was not flightless, but rather hard to flush; it preferred to hide between rocks when pursued. The last sighting was of a pair shot on January 9, 1902. It was not found in a 1909 search, and a thorough 1972/1973 exploration of possible habitat concluded that it was long extinct.

Subsequent fossil discoveries suggest that this merganser was previously resident in the South Island, and on Stewart Island/Rakiura in New Zealand. Fossils of a subspecies or closely related species have also been found on the Chatham Islands. There exists a short remark mentioning "a merganser" found on Campbell Island, but this may just as well refer to the semi-marine Campbell teal which is otherwise missing in McCormick's notes: he only mentions the Pacific black duck ("a New Zealand species of duck").